Former CIA head Hayden: Espionage essential to protect Americans

Spying is as patriotic as baseball and apple pie, retired CIA Director Michael Hayden told two groups in Pittsburgh on Monday.

But technology and foreign threats have shifted so dramatically that spy masters need new parameters for their craft, he said. Americans who no longer trust the government to set those boundaries must get involved in redefining them.

“Espionage is not only compatible with democracy,” Gen. Hayden said at a morning event with students at Peters Township High School. “Espionage … is necessary for a democracy to remain free and safe.”

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